Portrait of sultan Mahmud II

Portrait of sultan Mahmud II at Musée de Versailles. Photo By Henry Guillaume Schlesinger. Wikicommons

Top 10 fascinating facts about Mahmud II


 

He is the 30th sultan of the ottomans empire and he reigned from 1808 until his death in 1839.

Mustafa IV was his predecessor and he was a half-brother who had ordered his execution along with his cousin, the deposed Sultan Selim III, in order to defuse the rebellion.

While Selim III was killed, Mahmud was successfully hidden by his mother. Later rebels would depose Mustafa IV and place Mahmud II on the throne and appointed the rebellion leader Alemdar Mustafa Pasha as his vizier.

In his reign, he instituted extensive administration, military, and fiscal reforms. Among the most notable was introduction of permanent diplomats in Europe.

Below are some of the fascinating facts of the 30th Ottoman Sultan;

1 He was the Son of Sultan Abdul Hamid I

Mahmud II was born on 20th July 1785 in Topkapi palace Museum, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, Istanbul turkey.
He was the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid I and his wife Nakşidil Valide Sultan.
He was the youngest son of his father and he had an elder brother called Sehzade Seyfullah Murad and a younger sister, Saliha Sultan.
He practiced Sunni Islam religion.

2 He was Polygamous

He married Asubcan Kadin in 1810, and in 1822 he married Bezmialem Sultan, and he later married his third wife Pertevniyal Sultan in 1829.
He had several children including Abdulmejid 1, Abdul-Aziz, Adile Sultan, Sehzade Abdullah, Atiye Sultan, Saliha Sultan, and many more.
He also had several grandchildren.

3 He was buried in Tomb of Sultan Mahmud II

 

Sultan Mahmud II

The Sarcophagus of Sultan Mahmud II in his burial place. Photo by Vmenkov. Wikicommons

At the age of 53 he contacted tuberculosis, a major ailment then, and died on 1st July 1839, Constantinople and buried in  Fatih in the tomb of Mahmud II.

He was succeeded by his son Abdulmejid I  who continued with much of his Tanzimat reform efforts.

4 His Reign Marked the Beginning of Tanzimat Reform Era 

In 1839, just before his death initiated preparations for the Tanzimat reform era which included introducing a council of ministers

The Tanzimat was the beginning of modernization in the Ottoman Empire, which had immediate effects on social and legal aspects of life in the Empire, such as European style clothing, architecture, registration, institutional organization, and the land reform.

He valued the aspect of tradition and made great efforts to revive the sport of archery.
After his death, his son Abdulmejid I succeeded him and continued to implement Tanzimat reform efforts.

5 He Led to Destruction of the Janissary Corps in June 1826.

Mahmud had several reforms that include the 1826 abolition of the conservative Janissary Corps, which was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan’s household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe and which signified a break from old style of military dress.

He accomplished reforms by using careful calculated moves of reforming a certain wing of the military with intention of replacing the whole janissaries.

He permitted the establishment of European-style conscript army, recruited mainly from Turkish speakers of Rumelia and Asia minor.

He also ordered civilian officials to adopt similar, but plain fez to distinguish them from the military.

By doing so he helped to remove major obstacles to his successors’ reforms in the Empire

All reforms he instituted, were all characterized by political and social changes that lead to the modern day Turkish Republic. He was also responsible for subjugation of the Iraq Tepelena.

6 He also Brought Reforms in the Ottoman Judicial System

One of his legal reforms are the edicts or firmans, which was at the constitutional level, a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state, by which he closed the court of confiscations and took away much of the power of the pashas.

Mahmud II even created an appeal system where a criminal could lodge an appeal. The system included a pasha, Kazaker (chief millitary judge ,) and finally the sultan at the apex.

7 His was Inclined to Westernization Despite his Interest in Traditional Turkish Archery

The Ottoman Empire under Mahmud’s reign inclined towards Europeanisation and adopted western culture in many areas such as in institutions, palace order, daily life, clothing, music and many other areas.

He loved traditional Turkish archery and even ordered Mustafa Kani, an archery master, to write a book about the sport.

Mahmud’s radical reforms opened up Ottoman Empire to modernization. 

8 He  ended the  Turkish-Russo Boarder War  Through The Bucharest Agreement 

Mahmud II became sultan, when the was Turkish border war with Russian was going on.

He continued with it for some time  until 1810 when the Russian surrounded the Silistre Fortress for the second time.

This Russian repression on the Ottoman border diminished, when Emperor Napoleon I of France declared war on Russian in 1811, and it was a relief to Mahmud.

To avoid future aggression he reached an agreement with the Russians.

This agreement is reffered as the Treaty of Bucharest Agreement  signed on 28th may 1812.It came at a cost as Ottoman Empire ceded the eastern half of Moldavia to Russia.

9 He Re-established Royal Authority on his Government

Mahmud II made sweeping reforms of the bureaucracy in order to re-establish royal authority and increase the administrative efficiency of his government.

He accomplished this by ,abolishing old offices, introducing new lines of responsibility, and raised salaries in an attempt to end bribery. He even founded two institutions aimed towards training government officials in 1838.

In 1831, Mahmud II also established an official gazette, Tkvim-I Vekayi, which is calendar of Events.

10 He Resumed  Selim III’s International Diplomacy

He built upon Selim III’s foundational elements of international diplomacy, and even expanded the Language Office and Translation Office, and by 1833 it began to grow in both size and importance. 

He was also critical in the establishment and flourishing of an Ottoman foreign affairs office. He even  created Foreign Minister and Undersecretary in 1836.He placed enormous importance on this position and equated salary and rank with the highest military and civilian positions.

In 1834, permanent European embassies were established with the first being in Paris.

 

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